Theological Issues and Institutions Part 2: Evolving on Evolution

In addition to the new Directory of Worship, the Theological Issues and Institutions committee brought a few items related to science and theology.  More specifically the recommendations concerned the relationship between our theology of creation and the scientific theory of evolution.

Due to some technological issues, commissioners wound up voting on one issue four times.  The first time the motion to support a theological statement on the foundational place of evolution in our understanding of creation was defeated by a handful of votes.  Then it passed by a handful of votes.  Then it passed by a bigger handful.  Then it finally passed by a couple of handfuls.  Over the course of four votes we actually evolved on the question of evolution.

Putting aside the humor of the votes.  The fact that we had to vote and that it was so close speaks to a troubling trend in the culture both inside and outside of the church; namely, the idea that we are all entitled to our own facts. 

Thankfully, the General Assembly voted to affirm that though science and faith often live in tension, they do not present us with a simple A vs. B choice.  What the vote reveals is that we have a lot of work left to do in the church to articulate a theology that is strong enough to stand up to debate and living enough to learn from the God-given curiosity which leads us to explore the mysteries and truth of creation. 

Belhar: Being Here in This Moment

There are not many times when you get to be part of something truly historic. Today everyone at the Oregon Convention Center got that chance. 

The 222^nd General Assembly voted tonight to take the final step to include the Belhar Confession in the Book of Confessions.  It has been more than 2 decades since the PC(USA) has amended the confessions.  There are few more tangible ways we demonstrate our Reformed heritage than by, from time to time, memorializing how the Holy Sprit is at work in our midst.

Belhar is an especially strong theological step because it is the first confession from the Global South in our Book of Confessions.  It is a bold statement affirming God’s work in the world to tear down the walls we so diligently build.

The confession says, in part, “We believe that, in obedience to Jesus Christ, its only head, the church is called to confess and do all these things, even though the authorities and human laws might forbid them and punishment and suffering be the consequence.”

These are the words of a church reclaiming its prophetic voice in the world.  They are the words of a church that stands for Christ and all of God’s children.

There is not much I can say about Belhar that Belhar cannot say much better.  So I will just say, that I am deeply proud of our church and spiritually energized by the chance to be here today to celebrate with my brothers and sisters in Christ. 

“To the one and only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be the honor and the glory for ever and ever.”

Theological Issues Part 1: Putting Words to Work in Worship

Now that we are in the actual business sessions of the assembly, it is time to start blogging again.

So far we have heard from the Theological Issues and Institutions committee.  Two items of interest came out of their report in addition to several tributes to individuals who have served the church.

First, we have a new Directory for Worship on the way to presbyteries for approval.  Given how little most Presbyterians know about the theology of our worship, a simpler more user-friendly directory is a good step in the right direction.  But there is something more important about this change.

As a church, we embrace our call to be guided by the Holy Spirit and reformed in our living based on the Spirit’s work in our midst.  Over the last three decades we have seen the church move forward on numerous theological and social issues.  Could anyone imagine in 1989 (the year the current directory was adopted) that in less than three decades love between two people would be recognized as just that- love.  We have two women as our co-Moderators just 60 years after the first women pioneer  Teaching Elders started to chip away at the stained glass ceiling (which still needs some work).

We are a changed church.  Yet our theology and liturgical guidance in our constitution are from a vastly different era in the life of the church.  The new Directory for Worship is a chance for the church to reform the way we proclaim our faith when we are together even as we reform the theological witness beyond the walls.  As we grow the church of Jesus Christ and work to broaden the reach of the church as we share God’s love, our worship lives must reflect the same liveliness as our social witness hopes to do. 

That the new directory was adopted by a strong majority speaks to the desire of the church to continually reform who we are in the light of Christ and work of the Spirit. 

However, just as our new Governance is only as effective as our willingness to put it to work in the creative ministry of the church, the new Directory of Worship will be a dead letter if our churches are not willing to put these words to work in the life of the church.

As the directory says, “We are gathered in worship to glorify the God who is PRESENT AND ACTIVE among us…”

Family Reunions

GK Chesterton compared birth to climbing down a random chimney and trying to get along with the people you found living in that house.

Coming to General Assembly is like climbing down a random chimney and find out you have landed at home.

From year to year, the players change, the business evolves, the disputes cycle through the life of the church, and the city is a different one every time.  However one thing, one important thing, always stays the same.  GA is a moment in time when hundreds and, in some years, thousands of people come together for one reason; love for that part of the body of Christ that is the Presbyterian Church (USA). 

We are a family.  An occasionally fussy, often divided, and frequently exhausted family, but a family nonetheless.  And this morning, that is what we celebrated together as we started the week with worship in the Oregon Convention Center. 

For all the “signs” so often and easily bandied around about the demise of the mainline church and the PC(USA) in particular, this morning we all encountered a countersign- a counter-witness- to the despair of  so many.  We saw men and women, young and old, hipsters and boring middle-aged men with thinning hair (we are people too!) singing, praying, reaffirming our baptism, and sharing the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation.  We saw that there is yet life in that valley of bones and the truth of resurrection alive in the church. 

This is a family with generations yet to come.

I, for one, look forward to what the Spirit has in store for our family this week in Portland. 

#ga222

This is a test.  This is only a test.

Actually, it is a quick "I love GA but I hate plane travel" mini-rant to make sure the old dusty blog still works.

Looking forward to seeing friends old and new in Portland and spending a week celebrating the work of the Holy Spirit in the PC(USA).

If there is a particular GA issue or topic you think I should seek out, let me know here or on Facebook, or Twitter @presrevrob

Let the polity nerdfest begin!

On Marriage: A "No" Vote with a Very Heavy Heart

Since the General Assembly was gaveled to a close this summer, I have struggled with how I would cast my vote when it comes time for the Presbytery of Arkansas to vote on proposed amendment 14-F, the "Marriage Amendment" to the PC(USA) Book of Order.

Although I have not always been sympathetic with the tactics or the underlying theology of many "liberal" PC(USA) groups who have worked tirelessly for greater inclusion of LGBT Presbyterians in the life of the church, I am with them in the desire to see our church become a more faithful reflection of the radical inclusive love and grace of God in Christ.  We do that best by being a place where all of God's children are welcomed into the ministries and mission of the church.  Part of that welcome is into the covenant of marriage.

It is my fervent prayer that one day soon the denomination I love deeply which has nurtured, educated, and occasionally troubled me over the years will be a denomination that bears witness to the wideness of God's mercy and the boundlessness of God's love.

That is why it breaks my heart that when the time comes to vote on 14-F, I feel compelled to vote "no."

My objection to 14-F is not to its intent.  The intent is pure.  It is good.  And it is faithful.  I agree to the depths of my spirit with the intent of this proposed change to our constitution and I believe that what it hopes to accomplish is a faithful step for the church.  Unfortunately, the GA chose to take that step on a dangerous and slippery slope.

As it is presented to the presbyteries, 14-F represents an abrogation of the church's calling to bear witness to the Kingdom of God in the world.  That witness depends on one thing- the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is the charge of the church to proclaim the gospel in all places and in all times, not merely in those where the world is ready to hear it.

14-F proposes to amend the liturgical practice of the church by allowing same-sex marriage to be celebrated without penalty or prejudice but only in those places where a civil authority has given its imprimatur.  In those places where the state is silent or has denied its consent, the church is constitutionally commanded to remain silent.

The fundamental question facing the church in 14-F is not, "Shall we allow same-sex marriages to be celebrated in the PC(USA)?"  The question is, "Shall we allow Caesar to define the boundaries of our proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ?"  Shall my pastoral discretion and the freedom of our Presbyterian church session be bound by the decisions of our state legislature with 2 of 135 members who are Presbyterians?  Or a Supreme Court with none?

Is the legislature competent to make that theological decision?

Is a court?

Defenders of 14-F argue that it was the best way to get a change made now.  On that point, they are likely correct.  A wholesale change would have been difficult to get passed at GA and likely impossible with the presbyteries.  Half-a-loaf, as the saying goes, is better than none at all.

However, this half-a-loaf is stale.

What other decisions shall we surrender to the state?  Shall Congress decide whether or not the church may speak against war?  Or corporate corruption?  Shall we put the preferential option for the poor up for majority vote?

The church must live in civil society and must, from time to time, be bound by its laws.  However, when those laws have the effect of defining the permissible boundaries within which the gospel may be proclaimed, the church has failed in its calling.  When the church conspires through constitutional provision to attempt to silence the witness of a whole portion of the church, the church has become little more than a fourth branch of the civil government.

If it is to live into its calling as the church of Jesus Christ, I firmly believe that the PC(USA) must change its stance on marriage to include same as well as opposite-gender couples.  To do that at the expense of the church's charge to proclaim the gospel fully despite the whimsy and caprice of the state leads away rather than toward that calling.

With a heavy heart, I will vote "no" on 14-F and pray that this is not the last word.

The Outrage Wing of the PC(USA): Time to Look in the Mirror

There has been yet another trial in yet another presbytery on the same old questions of human sexuality.  A pastor was tried in Southern New England presbytery for allegedly violating his ordination vows and the constitution of the church by marrying his partner.  He was found not guilty on all charges by the presbytery PJC.

The decision was, by what information is available, made based on binding GAPJC and GA authoritative interpretations and on the present constitution of the church.  Still, that has not stopped the outrage wing of the PC(USA) from crying foul and declaring the presbytery PJC members everything from heretics to Baal worshipers.  (Props for that last name-caller not just going with the usual pagan worshiper label.)

I refer to these particular critics of the decision as the outrage wing of the church rather than the conservative wing because as tempting as it is for some people to lump them together, they are not the same thing.

Despite recent changes to the constitution of the church and the growing consensus that human sexuality is not the single defining issue of all things faith-related, there are many members of the PC(USA) (clergy and laity alike) who remain unconvinced that the church is headed in the right direction.  They hold deep convictions that the church should return to the former position that homosexuality is contrary to scripture and the life of faith.

Part of what I love about being a Presbyterian is that there is room in the church for people who hold that more traditionalist view and room for those of us who are convinced of the faithfulness of the church's current direction.  I love being a part of a church that can embrace the truth that we all see through the glass dimly and none of us has a full comprehension of the mind and perspective of God.  Many of my more conservative friends in the church share that feeling about our church.

Unfortunately, there are still those in the PC(USA) for whom the present direction of the church is anathema to faithfulness and who are determined 24/7 to root out those who disagree with them and rid the church of any opinion that does not fit their own perspective.  This outrage wing of the church is constantly going on about how the church has abandoned scripture, the confessions and the Book of Order.  We have, in their opinion, become "post-constitutional" and "post-confessional."  One comment on a letter posted on the Presbyterian Layman website went on and on about how we have abandoned the constitution and are no longer bound by the words of those books.  Another writer declared that Jesus (who had NOTHING to say about same-gender relationships) would be appalled by our abandoning of the constitution.

What, I have begun to wonder, matters more to these members of the outrage wing of the Presbyterian Church (USA)...that we worship Christ or that we kneel before books?  It seems from their level of vitriol and outrage against those with whom they disagree that what is most important is that we root our faith in the bible, confessions and Book of Order as books rather than in the Christ they seek to proclaim.

When the single most important thing in your lived life of faith is rooting out those who do not share your own personal devotion to words on a page, it might be time to look in the mirror and do some self-evaluation before throwing those stones.

For my part, I will continue to worship and proclaim the Christ who time and time again demonstrates that he will not and cannot be contained by the words or pages of any book.